The Italian government will appeal against two rulings issued by Sicilian judges against it and in favor of the German NGO Sea Watch, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said on the morning of February 20.

A court in Catania last week ordered the release of the NGO's Sea-Watch 5 migrant-rescue ship after the Italian authorities temporarily impounded it for 15 days for allegedly breaching the rules for such operations. The order followed an operation carried out by the NGO-run vessel on January 25 in which 18 people -- including two children -- were saved.

Meanwhile, judges in Palermo ordered the Italian State to pay 76,000 euros in compensation for the expenses sustained by the NGO, stating another of its ships, the Sea Watch 3, had been illegally detained in 2019.

Sea Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete was cleared of ramming coast guard ships in order to land ailing migrants after weeks of being prevented from docking at the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.

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'Landings down by 60 percent and expulsions up 20 percent'

"Up until now, we have challenged these types of rulings, using the three-level judicial system (in Italy), and we will continue to do so," Piantedosi said at the opening of a new police office at Rome's central Termini train station.

"We have challenged them whenever possible, so we will do the same in this case as well," he declared. The interior minister went on to speak about the "progressive decrease in irregular arrivals," stressing that a "decline in landings" has been reported so far this year.

"This means that the number of measures we are implementing, regardless of judicial initiatives, is proving that the government's policies are right," he highlighted.

"Expulsions of irregular foreigners are registering growing results which we had not seen in a while, even though some are working to alter the official numbers we are providing", Piantedosi said on February 21, speaking at the meeting 'There is no security without justice' in Bologna.

According to the minister, the beginning of 2026 has recorded "a 20 percent increase in expulsions compared to the same period last year, which had already registered a 15 percent rise compared to the previous years."

Piantedosi also spoke about a "60 percent decrease in landings compared to last year, which in turn had already registered a 60 percent downturn".

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The minister then criticized what he described as a "pro-immigration philosophy" allegedly backed by a segment of the judiciary: "There are magistrates who don't hide the fact that they have a position which is not conceptually against legislation, but against the very philosophy to fight irregular immigration. These are well-known positions, with specific names", he claimed.

Speaking about the recent rulings concerning immigration cases, Piantedosi said the executive will appeal them: "We are not losing confidence in justice, which expresses itself over the different levels of the judicial system. Our approach will always be to take action in the appropriate fora."

Government members have been ramping up criticism of judicial rulings against the government's policies, especially on migration and migrant crime, ahead of a referendum on the government's contested judiciary reform next month.

The interior minister spoke about "desperate attempts to undermine the credibility of the government on security policies and the fight against irregular immigration", noting that the data available allegedly showed a "concrete change in pace".

Speaking about a new package of measures aimed at combating illegal immigration approved by the government earlier this month, including new powers that will make it possible for the authorities to impose a 'naval blockade" in certain situations, Piantedosi explained that it is "a legislative hypothesis that will now be examined by parliament".

The measure enables the authorities to ban the crossing into Italian territorial waters for up to 30 days, and extendable up to a maximum of six months, in cases of serious threats to public order or national security, such as the concrete risk of terrorist acts or terrorist infiltration.

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'Rackete would not have an easy life with me', says Salvini

Meanwhile Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, who was the interior minister when the Sea Watch 3 was impounded in 2019, once again attacked the sentence issued by the Tribunal of Palermo that ordered the Ministries of Interior, Transport and the Economy, as well as the Prefecture of Agrigento to pay 76,000 euros to the NGO for the financial damage it had sustained following the administrative seizure of its ship from July to December 2019 at Lampedusa.

"If I were to become interior minister again, Rackete wouldn't have an easy life with me", he said, while praising Piantedosi, whom he described as "very capable".

Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party, went on to say that, "it gets complicated" if policymakers "build laws on security, which can be liked or disliked, and then judges decide the opposite."

Labour and Social Policies Undersecretary Claudio Durigon also slammed the sentence as "incredible", accusing Rackete of "ramming people, endangering those who work every day, and considering that she will also get a reimbursement makes me think it is a political sentence -- and it's not the only one," he alleged.

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